Publications — Joshua Cain, PhD

Scientific Publications

The following are all peer-reviewed, scientific publications in respected academic journals. My work has spanned topics including: Disorders of Consciousness (e.g., coma), an emerging form of brain stimulation called Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU), Cognitive Functioning, the Thalamocortical System, Computational Methods, Meditation, and more. Filter by topic or click any node to explore a study in more detail.

RESEARCH FOCUS

My primary interest remains the nature of consciousness and ways that we might manipulate consciousness for the betterment of the human condition. I gained extremely early-access (2017-on) to an emerging form of neuromodulation (i.e., brain stimulation) called Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU), which remains the only way to precisely target (mm-scale precision) any brain-region without-surgery, including in healthy human volunteers. As a result, much of my work thus-far has concerned using this new tool as a way to safely modulate human brain-function and the conscious experience it appears to generate–from jump-starting the recovery of consciousness in coma patients to amplifying the effects of Vipassana meditation in expert meditators.

MY CITATIONS OVER TIME

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

MY FIRST-AUTHOR PUBLICATIONS

Projects that I Led: 1^st authored publications report the results of studies that I led. For these, I conducted the design, execution, data collection, data analysis, and writing of these studies.

Filter By Topic

Sort by

Co-Author Publications

Projects I Meaningfully Contributed to: Co-Authored publications are those which I contributed data, data collection, writing/editing, and/or conducted data analysis as part of a collaborative team.

Other Works

PhD Dissertation: Identifying Deep-brain Contributions to Cons ...- 2023
Identifying Deep-brain Contributions to Consciousness with Transcranial Focused Ultrasound — UCLA.
Arousal, Oscillations, and Cognition: Thalamus and the Yerkes-Dodson Law- 2020
C-Paper on thalamic oscillations, arousal, and cognitive performance via the Yerkes-Dodson law, UCLA.

Research

Scientific Publications

MY FIRST-AUTHOR PUBLICATIONS

Facilitating Meditation with Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: A First Investigation in Experienced Practitioners

Behavioral Effects of Targeting the Central Thalamus and Pulvinar with Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation in Healthy Volunteers

Neural Correlates of Behavioral Recovery Following Ultrasonic Thalamic Stimulation in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness

S.M.A.R.T. F.U.S: Surrogate Model of Attenuation and Refraction in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound

Ultrasonic Deep Brain Neuromodulation in Acute Disorders of Consciousness: A Proof-of-Concept

Real Time and Delayed Effects of Subcortical Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound

Ultrasonic Thalamic Stimulation in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness

Mechanisms Underlying Disorders of Consciousness: Bridging Gaps to Move Toward an Integrated Translational Science

Co-Author Publications

Thalamic Sonication in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness: A Mechanistic Single-Arm Clinical Trial

ENIGMA-Meditation: Worldwide Consortium for Neuroscientific Investigations of Meditation Practices

A Systematic Comparison of Structural-, Structural Connectivity-, and Functional Connectivity-Based Thalamus Parcellation Techniques

Working Memory Systems in the Rat

Other Works